Structure composed entirely of separate similar inflated members removably secured together

ABSTRACT

The structure specially selected for illustrating this invention comprises a chair in which side, back and seat portions are formed entirely by relatively small, similarly shaped inflated bags of thermoplastic or other suitable pliable material. Each bag has a simple air valve and has front and rear walls, or top and bottom walls, as well as sidewalls, which walls give the bag definite shape and size upon its inflation. Each bag has a short edge seam at each corner where adjacent sidewalls meet, and the inflated bags are secured together in desired formation by means of slotted fastening elements which slide over the adjacent corner edge seams of the bags.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Gary D. Smith 1624 10th Ave. West, Seattle, Wash. 98119 [21] Appl. No. 868,755

[22] Filed Oct. 23, 1969 [45] Patented Oct.5,l97l

[54] STRUCTURE COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF SEPARATE SIMILAR INFLATED MEMBERS REMOVABLY SECURED TOGETHER 3 Claims, 13 Drawing Figs.

3,420,574 1/1969 Smith 297/456 3,499,682 3/1970 Orenstein 297/456 3,556,593 1/1971 Speegle 297/410 FOREIGN PATENTS 776,934 6/1957 Great Britain 297/456 923,033 12/1954 Germany 297/DIG. 3

Primary ExaminerCasmir A. Nunberg Attorney-L. R. Geisler ABSTRACT: The structure specially selected for illustrating this invention comprises a chair in which side, back and seat portions are formed entirely by relatively small, similarly shaped inflated bags of thermoplastic or other suitable pliable material. Each bag has a simple air valve and has front and rear walls, or top and bottom walls, as well as sidewalls, which walls give the bag definite shape and size upon its inflation. Each bag has a short edge seam at each corner where adjacent sidewalls meet, and the inflated bags are secured together in desired formation by means of slotted fastening elements which slide over the adjacent comer edge seams of the bags.

PATENTEBUCT SIS?! 3 610 689 SHEET 1 BF 2 GARY D. SMITH INVENTOR.

ATTY.

STRUCTURE COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF SEPARATE SIMILAR INFLATED MEMBERS REMOVABLY SECURED TOGETHER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It is known to be old in the art not only to have inflatable cushions for use in chairs and similar articles of furniture but also to have permanent parts of furniture fonned by inflated portions. Thus, US. Pat. No. 2,982,341, issued May 2, 1961, to Besser, describes anarmchair having two hollow inflatable bodies, one constituting the seat portion of the chair and the other the side and back portion. These two inflatable bodies are large, specially formed, and completely different in shape. Due to their relatively large size they are necessarily complicated in construction and include internal cross bracing and anchoring members. Replacement of either of these two inflatable body portions of which thechair is composed, in he event either portion becomes ruptured, would be expensive and troublesome and rather impracticable. An object of the present invention, on the other hand, is to provide a composite structure formed of a plurality of similar inflated members, the replacement of any one of which can be accomplished very easily and simply and at little expense.

An inflatable chair is also described in US. Pat. No. 3,420,574, issued Jan. 6, 1969, to Smith, which, like the chair described in the previously mentioned patent, is composed of two inflatable bodies forming the seat portion, and the back and side portions respectively, and the present invention differs similarly from the device of this patent.

Afurther object of this invention is to provide a chair, or other structure, composed of flexible, inflatable members which, when the members are inflated and secured together, will provide such overall stability to the structure that, in spite of the yieldable or cushioning nature of the individual inflated members, and thus of the complete structure, no reinforcing frame members or any rigid elements, other than short, small clamps which connect the comer portions of the individual members together, are required for maintaining the proper shape and form for the entire structure.

OUTLINE OF THE INVENTION The structure, such as the chair structure illustrated and described herein, is composed of a plurality of similar, separate, relatively small, inflated bags of cushionlike resiliency. The individual bags are preferably triangular in shape and are clamped together along the three seams, extending between front and back faces at the three comers, by means of removable slotted, tubular, clamping elements. No other elements, other than the inflated bags themselves and the clamps by which they are held together, are required for maintaining the desired form and size of the entire structure. Each of the bags is easily removable and replaceable in the event of a failure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of one of the several similar members or bags of which the structure is composed, the bag being shown in inflated condition, and the bag also being shown in the preferred or triangular shape;

FIG. 2 is a corresponding rear elevation of the inflated bag;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation taken on line 3--3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a section through one of the corner edge seams of the bag taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 3 but drawn to an enlarged scale;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the sheet of the flexible material which forms the front wall and the three sidewalls of the bag;

FIG. 6 is a corresponding plan view of the sheet forming the rear wall of the bag;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of a chair having the seat, side and back portions made up of a plurality of the bags in inflated condition and secured together in desired arrangement;

FIG. 8 is a front elevation of the chair of FIG. 7 taken on the line 8-8 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is a rear view of the same chair taken on line 99 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 10 is a cross section on line lllll0 of FIGS. 7 and 8, drawn to a considerably enlarged scale, showing a cross section of one of the fastening elements being employed for removably securing two adjacent bags together at their respective comer seams;

FIG. 11 is a cross section on line Illl of FIGS. 7 and 8, drawn to the same scale as FIG. 10, of one of the same fastening elements being employed for securing the corner seams of three adjacent bags together;

FIG. 12 is a fragmentary plan section of the center of the seat portion showing one of the same fastening elements employed for securing the adjacent corner seams together of the five bags forming the seat portion of the chair, this figure being drawn on the same scale as FIGS. 10 and II; and

FIG. 13 is a perspective view of one of the fastening elements by itself with one of the end caps in separated position.

REferring first to FIGS. 1 to 6 inclusive, while the individual bags which form the composite structure may be variously constructed and shaped, in the preferred form each bag is in the shape of an isosceles triangle having a front wall 10, three sidewalls ll, 12 and 13, as shown in FIG. I, and a rear wall 14 shown in FIG. 2. The rear wall 14 is provided with a simple air valve 15 through which the bag can be inflated to the extent desired. The front and rear walls are substantially parallel to each other except when the bag is fully inflated. The backwall is exactly similar in shape to the front wall but larger in dimension, as apparent from FIG. 1.

Preferably the front and side walls are formed from a single piece 16 of vinyl sheeting or other suitable material cut into the shape shown in FIG. 5, and the rear wall is formed from a triangular sheet 17 (FIG. 5) of the exact size for the rear wall. The bag is completed by thermal welding or heat sealing along the various edges. Thus, a heat seam 1B is formed of the adjacent end edges I80, l8aof the sides 12 and 13, a heat seam 19 is formed of the adjacent end edges 19a, 19a of the sidewalls 11 and 13, and a heat seam 20 is formed of the adjacent end edges 20a, 20a of the sidewalls 11 and 12. Similarly, heat seams 21, 22 and 23 are formed respectively of the corresponding edges 21a, 21a and 22a, 22a and 23a, 23a of the front and back sheets. Since the adjacent inflated bags are secured together at their corner edge seams l8, l9, and 20 as presently explained, the seams on each of these edges are preferably reinforced by an overlay binding strip of plastic 24 which is heat-sealed over the edge seam as shown in FIG. 4. 4.

The particular chair as illustrated in FIGS. 7, 8, and 9 has the seat, side, and back portions formed of 12 of these inflated identical bags, indicated by the reference numbers 50 to 61 inclusive in FIG, 7, of which the five bags 50, 51, 52, 53, and 54 form the seat portion. These five bags each have one of their corner edge seams at the center of the seat portion and the five edge seams are clamped together by one of the fastening elements 25, the adjacent comer seams of the five bags being secured respectively in the five slotted tubular sections of the fastening element, as shown in FIG. 12. The fastening element 25 is shaped as shown in FIG. 13, having a center channel 26 and the surrounding wall formed with five slotted tubular sections 27. When a fastening element is in place a cap 28 is placed over each end, the cap having .a threaded stem 28' which screws into the corresponding threaded end of the center channel 26. The fastening elements and their caps preferably are made of semirigid plastic finished in the same color as the bags, although they may be made also of metal or any other suitably hard material. The caps 28 on the fastening elements also prevent the corner edge seams of the secured bags from inadvertently slipping out from their place in the fastening element.

The side and back portions of the chair are formed by the bags 55 to 61 inclusive, which bags are secured in place in the structure by the fastening elements with the comer edge seams of two, three, or five adjacent bags held by each fastening element, as the case may be. Thus the bags 50 and 51, of the seat portion, and the bag 55 of the arm portion, have three adjacent comer edge seams removably secured together by one of the fastening elements as shown in FIG. 11. The corner edge seams of the three bags 50, 54, and 61, the corner edge seams of the three bags 56, 57, and 58, and the corner edge seams of the three bags 58, 59, and 60 are similarly held together.

The top comer edge seams of the two adjacent bags 55 and 56 and the top corner edge seams of the two adjacent bags 60 and 61 are secured together as shown in FIG. 10.

The corner edge seams of the five bags 51, 52, 55, 56, and 57, the comer edge seams of the five bags 52, 53, 57, 58, and 59 and the comer edge seams of the five bags 53, 54, 59, 60, and 61 are held together by the fastening element in the same manner as the five bags of the seat position as shown in FIG. 12.

Other fastening elements, such as clamps or ferrules, could be used in place of the special fastening elements 25 illustrated and described. However, the particular elements 25 are considered preferable since they are simple and inexpensive to produce and have proved very satisfactory in actual use. The bags are secured together in proper order at their adjacent comer seams, in the manner mentioned, preferably before the bags are in fully inflated condition since this makes them easier to handle and set in place.

Thus with the employment of the simple fastening elements 25, the individual inflated bags are held firmly in their proper relative positions for composing the entire structure or chair, as illustrated. Should any one bag of the completed structure become ruptured and rendered incapable of retaining air on the desired pressure, and thus unusable, it can be removed from the structure and replaced by another identical inflated bag without much trouble or expense since the corner edge seams of the bags can readily be pulled out from or inserted into the holding elements.

In the chair illustrated the inflation of the bags forming the arm and back portions causes them resiliently to retain their shape and relative positions as long as they remain inflated, and consequently no rigid frame supports or other reinforcements are required for maintaining the sides and back portions of the chair in upright position.

While each bag, when fully inflated, becomes a practical and satisfactory air cushion, and its front face, and also its back face, presents the type of cushion desirable for overstuffed furniture for example, the bag itself, due largely to its construction with its sloping corners seams, very rigidly maintains its overall outline at all times.

The composite chair structure described, comprising the inflated seat, side and back portions secured together is supported on any suitable mounting base. For example, a pedestal base, such as that shown at 29 in FIG. 7, has been most practical and satisfactory. Such a base can be formed as a single unit of plastic or other suitable strong, rigid material. If formed with a concave or slightly bowl-shaped top surface 29 of proper size to correspond to the bottom of the inflated seat portion of the chair, the chair can be removably set on the pedestal support and this position on the support can be readily shifted by the occupant to suit his comfort.

The extremely lightweight of the inflated chair, the comfortable cushioning which it provides, its low cost, and, when finished in an attractive surfacing, its pleasing appearance and design, are factors contributing to the favorable response the chair has received upon its introduction to the market. lts additional feature as a possible life preserver when used on pleasure boats is obvious.

Iclaim:

l. A composite chair structure consisting entirely of a plurality of similar inflated bags of flexible, impermeable material, each bag having a backwall, a front wall and sidewalls, said front wall and said backwall being similar in shape but said front wall being of smaller dimension than said backwall, comer edge seams formed at the intersections of said sidewalls extending obliquely forwardly and inwardly from the comers of said backwall, an air valve mounted on each bag, and fastening elements fitting over said comer edge seams of adjac'ent bags respectively for removably securing the individual bags in place in the structure.

2. The structure set forth in claim 1 with said structure constituting the seat, arms and back portions of a chair, and with the air valve on each bag mounted on the backwall of the bag.

3. The chair structure of claim 2 with all of the bags composing said structure being identical and being in the shape of an isosceles triangle. 

1. A composite chair structure consisting entirely of a plurality of similar inflated bags of flexible, impermeable material, each bag having a backwall, a front wall and sidewalls, said front wall and said backwall being similar in shape but said front wall being of smaller dimension than said backwall, corner edge seams formed at the intersections of said sidewalls extending obliquely forwardly and inwardly from the corners of said backwall, an air valve mounted on each bag, and fastening elements fitting over said corner edge seams of adjacent bags respectively for removably securing the individual bags in place in the structure.
 2. The structure set forth in claim 1 with said structure constituting the seat, arms and back portions of a chair, and with the air valve on each bag mounted on the backwall of the bag.
 3. The chair structure of claim 2 with all of the bags composing said structure being identical and being in the shape of an isosceles triangle. 